and a happy birthday to me!!

happy birthday to me!! ryan is the coolest. he spoils me something fierce.

we both got new phones for my birthday. 

we also went to the monkey pod with some friends, zack, lydia anc co. & cami, tyler and co. who bought me a little origami book

(their kids sit by me in church and i show them how to fold frogs)

saturday morning was pipe masters up on north shore.

we got up at 5 am to make sure we got a spot to sit which was fortunate because it was PACKED.

over 10,000 people on the 1/4 mile of beach. what a circus, but so much fun.

OH! and the kids at school are too cool. they were so sweet and got me a fancy cake.

Pillbox

pillbox is on the east side in Lanikai. we live on the south west corner

in the more "desert" part of the island, which is lovely, but the windward side -sigh-

is beautiful.

Hey look! i found some pictures!

so i'm a slacker

WOW! no post since February? i must be a slacker. well, here's the skinny; since February, i quit my job at the trampoline place because it was a soul-sucking force of despair and, while paying really well, made me hope to get into a car accident, or break a leg, or get really sick, so that i wouldn't have to go to work. not ok. i began the hunt for a new job as well as a new direction for my life. it's been all retail all the time since i was 18 and, let's face it, retail kinda sucks. but i didn't want to have an office job, i ruined photography for myself, i didn't really want to go back to a bank (they didn't wanna hire me anyway) and in the end i just wanted to be happy. is that so wrong? i certainly didn't think so.
     after some soul searching and a lot of research i decided that i wanted to be a massage therapist. not necessarily the kind at a spa, though i'm sure that would be fun (i can see myself working on a cruise ship) but i would love to be the kind in a physical therapist office. i would like to work with rehab and sports injuries. so off to school i go. 9 months and i graduate. Ryan through all of this has been nothing short of amazing. he doesn't tell me no when i really want something. if happy is my goal, it's his goal too. what a guy.
     ryan is still working for Intelligent Decisions. He runs the DSTS (dismounted soldier training system) on Schofield Barracks. he isn't in love with this job, but for now it will do. there isn't any way to grow in the company so we know that this won't be forever. ry is looking for other opportunities to keep in the loop but no big changes on the horizon just yet.
    we do go out and enjoy the island when we can and when the weather agrees. we invested in some diving gear and we've been out a few times. we will go more when we can get ry's regulator fixed. right now it's a little dodgy. not what you want when you're 40 feet under water. we snorkel and skin dive more often. i love how i can swim in the ocean and not in my pool. salt water for the win. we do fun things, i promise, i just forget my camera a lot and so there is no proof. i'm working on it. That's what is new with us!
 

so this weekend we....

this is Lanikai. it's a very gentle beach on the eastern (windward) side

of the island. the water is beautiful and the beach is long and narrow. 

the water isnt great for snorkeling. visibility is poor and

the fish arent used to people so they hide. ry and jason are trying it

out though, just in front of that little boat.

this is a replica of a Buddhist temple that was built to celebrate the first 

Japanese immigrants. the real one is in Uji Japan and is over 900 years old  

laie point. that hole out there was made in one day during a tsunami

back in the 40s. the waves breaking all over this place were awesome.

and since we were in laie, we dropped by the temple for a minute.

we also dropped by a farmers market and got some amazing

bbq kabobs and fresh cut fruit and then drove along the north shore

to look at the banzai pipeline